Gold Stars
by falafel90
Summary: The first time Finn realizes Rachel has a thing for gold stars is two days after they come back from spring break. Finchel, one-shot.


The first time Finn realizes Rachel has a thing for gold stars is two days after they come back from spring break. As Mr. Schue is handing back their Spanish quizzes (one which he is proud to say he actually studied for), he turns to Rachel.

"I got an 81," he says to her, smiling and presenting his quiz to her. He'd never told her any of his grades before because, really, they are usually nothing to boast about. "It's nothing compared to what I'm sure you got," he babbles, "but I just thought I'd let you know…I'm not the dullest knife in the shed." Rachel laughs at his mix-up of two expressions, but doesn't correct him.

"I did well," she tells him modestly, moving to put her test paper away.

"Let me see," Finn replies, grinning at her. Before she has the chance to shove it into her sparkly pink folder, he had snatches it away from her. "A 92, Rach! That's pretty amazing in my book." He glances up at her and gives her a lopsided grin. Just as he is about to hand her back her paper, he catches the glint of gold foil, and he studies the quiz a little bit longer.

"Did you realize Mr. Schue gave you a gold star?" He asks, pointing to the sticker next to her name. "I didn't know he was that type of teacher…I never got a gold star." Rachel blushes and coughs. She quickly takes her paper from Finn's hands and places it out of sight.

"I actually put that there," she admits. "Gold stars are kind of my thing." When Finn gives her a puzzled look, she elaborates. "I put them after my name. They're a metaphor for the star that I'm going to become." Her eyes are intense, and he knows that what she's saying is important. If only he could remember what a metaphor is.

He continues to stare at her with his signature expression of befuddlement, knowing that whatever a metaphor is or isn't, Rachel Berry is going to become famous and that gold stars kind of suit her. Maybe that has to do with the metaphor thing. He's not completely sure. When he says nothing, Rachel continues.

"Jesse, he told me that it's slightly off-putting for people who don't understand our mutual desire to perform, but that he understands the obsession," she says without thinking. When Jesse's name slips from her mouth, Finn's baffled look turns to one of defeat. He nods along with her, only half listening (the half that is paying attention, though, doesn't know what she's trying to say).

Finn doesn't regret a lot in his life, but he does thoroughly regret breaking up with Rachel.

He is not her boyfriend, and he knows that—_man_, does he know that—but he takes note of the fact that she likes—_loves_—gold stars and vows never to forget it.

* * *

Weeks later, when Finn treks all the way to his locker before homeroom, he notices Rachel standing by hers, ruffling through her backpack furiously. Her hair covers her face, and a jolt in Finn's stomach tells him to forget the Geometry textbook and help her search for whatever she is looking for.

"Uh, Rachel?" he asks, towering over her as she bends down, pulling various notebooks, headbands, and—is that a diary?—out of her bag. When she hears his voice, she looks up immediately, frowning. "Are—what—uh, is there something wrong?"

"I—I can't believe I forgot them," she says, eyes wide, standing up. Panic is evident in her voice, and Finn has to wonder what exactly is so important that it would cause her to freak out.

"What—?"

"My gold stars, Finn," Rachel says in a high-pitched squeak. "My gold stars!" She grabs his arm as if to steady herself, and Finn laughs out loud. Seconds later, as Rachel glares at him, he realizes that it was the wrong reaction.

"Don't you think you're being a tad overdramatic, Rach?" he asks, gaining his composure. "I mean, so you go a day without a gold star next to your name on a paper or two…it doesn't mean anything." He gives her a look that he hopes tells her in the kindest way possible that she should be sensible about the situation, but he's not sure she picks up on it.

"It means _everything_," Rachel says, folding her arms across her chest. "We've got a week until regionals and if there were ever an appropriate time for this particular metaphor, now would be it!" She bends over to put her stuff back in her bag, and Finn flushes as he tries his hardest not to look up her entirely-too-short skirt (he wants to do the honorable thing, really, but he can't help but glance down three times…make that four times). When she stands back up, swinging her bag onto her shoulders, she continues. "Those gold stars may only be _stickers_"—she says the word venomously—"to you and to the rest of Glee club, but they help me remember why it is that I work day in and day out on my singing, to be the best, and why it is that I take the frequent slushie abuse." She says all of this quickly, sticking a finger in Finn's face, and suddenly he feels ashamed for laughing. He looks down at his feet. "And maybe I could deal with this drama if it were any other week, but not the week before regionals." She runs her hand over her skirt, then looks Finn straight in the eyes. "Do you think this is some sort of bad omen?" At his confusion, she clarifies. "Do you think this means we're not going to win regionals?"

The bell rings, but the two stay where they are.

"I don't think it means that at all," he says sincerely. "Maybe it's a good omen. Maybe it means that you should take a break. With every thing that's happened in the past few weeks"—he cringes, knowing that he just reminded her of the egging and the horrible break up with Jesse—"you deserve one. And maybe forgetting those stars is the world's way of telling you that you are allowed to relax every now and then." He smiles a lopsided smile, and Rachel can't help but return a small grin.

"Maybe," she says with a sigh. "But I feel naked without them." Finn's mind goes to places it shouldn't, not in public, not in the middle of the hall at school, and he pushes the image of a nude Rachel out of his mind (though perhaps he will store it for later).

"If you're really that concerned," he says to her as she motions for them to start walking to class, "you can just, you know, draw a gold star. I'm sure you could find a yellow crayon or colored pencil somewhere around here. I know it's not the same as the shiny gold star stickers you like to carry around, but…I mean, it could work." He rambles. When he glances down at her, he sees her looking up at him with such awe that it both frightens and elates him.

"Thank you, Finn," she says, her voice barely above a whisper. He almost misses it, but he hears it. He can tell she really means it.

Later during the day, he sees her write her name on a sign-up sheet for a theater camp interest session. He watches as she pulls a yellow colored pencil out of her bag and draws a perfectly symmetrical star on the crisp white sheet. She admires her handiwork afterward, and he admires her.

He can feel it. They're going to win it.

* * *

When they don't, and Rachel's crying in his arms, he feels cheated and robbed (Aural Intensity winning second? How?). But more than that, he feels like an idiot. Maybe she was right. Maybe it was a sign that she forgot those gold stars that day. He should have taken her home to get them (and he would have if it had occurred to him at the time).

* * *

On the second to last day of school, Mr. Schue tells the club that they've got another year. Everyone shrieks, and Rachel is so excited that she covers her face with her hands (a move that warms Finn's heart to the core, simply because it is so very Rachel). Finn's excitement rivals hers, and he can't believe that, less than a year ago, he thought of the club as a form of punishment.

He _really_ can't believe that, less than a year ago, he thought Rachel Berry was just another girl. He knows he's in love with her, and he recalls their private moment before _Faithfully_. When she takes his hand in the choir room, he's thankful that somehow—it's a miracle, really, and he realizes how lucky he is—they managed to work everything out, despite his stupidity, despite Jesse, and despite the drama that has seeped into both of their lives throughout the year.

On the last day of school, as they sit lazily in their last Spanish class of their sophomore year, they sign each others' yearbooks. Rachel uses a purple pen covered in sparkly stars, while Finn uses an old, chewed-on pen that he lost the cap to a while back. She rolls her eyes when she sees it, and he remembers that phrase, _opposites attract_. They are complete opposites, but she's everything he isn't, and maybe that's why they work.

She writes two pages, and he writes two paragraphs ("I swear," he tells her, "your yearbook message is the longest one I've written!"), and then they switch back. She sits in his lap and he reads hers, and he knows it's lame, but his stomach does a flip, and he's extremely happy. He kisses her forehead, and she smiles.

"Did you see your picture yet?" she asks him. He says no, he didn't bother to search for it because he knows what picture is there, as his mom's got it above the fireplace. "Well, I suggest you take a look at it." He flips to the sophomore pages, and then to the _H_ section, and he scans the page. Right next to his name is tiny gold star, and he laughs and hugs her tighter.

"I love it. But I'm not going to be a star," he tells her honestly. "You are." She shakes her head, giving him one of the greatest smiles he's ever seen.

"I don't know whether you'll become a star or not, Finn, though you certainly have the talent to become a performer," she says, "but that doesn't matter." She gets off his lap and looks directly into his eyes. "You'll always be my star." She puts a hand on his cheek, and suddenly, the room feels warmer.

Before he realizes it, Mr. Schue is telling them to stop making out because, even though it is the last day of school, even though the club is officially back on for next year, and even though he's given them a free period because they took their final early, they are still in Spanish class and they are still in school.


End file.
